Celeb Watch video: 'Nip/Tuck' has a little work done
By William Keck, USA TODAY
HOLLYWOOD — Nip/Tuck is about to return — with a face lift and a transplant. But its dark, twisted soul remains the same.
The landmark FX drama — about two Miami plastic surgeons, Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) and Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh), and their personal and professional escapades — is back Oct. 30, having moved the doctors' practice to Los Angeles. The mecca of plastic surgery happens to come along with sparkling new sets and endless opportunities for glitzy, kinky story lines.
It's not that the series, which from its start in 2003 helped position FX as the edgiest major cable network, was sagging so seriously that it needed a lift to survive. The changes are more like a starlet's nose job or breast implants: spiffing up an already appealing package.
The show averaged more than 3.6 million viewers last season. It was especially strong among the advertiser-coveted audience ages 18-49 — in fact, it's basic cable's top scripted series with those viewers. What's more, it attracts young women, not the usual audience for edgy fare.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Miami | Julian Mcmahon | Dylan Walsh | Christian Troy | Sean Mcnamara
"Nip/Tuck surprises everyone, because it appeals largely to women," says TV historian Tim Brooks, author of The Complete Directory of Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present. "But it is as much on the edge in its own way as The Shield is. (Nip/Tuck is) able to combine the violence with a strong character study, which most women want."
Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy says he was the catalyst for the drastic changes, saying the show was experiencing a bit of a midseries crisis. Sitting in his office — filled with props from seasons past such as separated conjoined-twin skulls and a baby hand with fused fingers — Murphy says, "My contract was up, and I said, 'I'll come back, but you need to give me a lot of money to do (new) sets, and you need to let me set it in L.A.' "
Something new
When executives balked, Murphy emphasized, " 'I'm bored. I need to change it up. I want something new.' So they trusted me and gave me the money. It was a risk worth taking."
The new season opens with the handsome, single docs with ritzy Rodeo Drive digs, but without any patients to treat. The new medical sets, which cost several million dollars (even with many machines donated by companies eager to feature their technological advances on screen), include an operating-room basketball court and a plush lobby with two 15-foot sofas (where crewmembers sometimes sneak away for afternoon naps).
When the show was set in Miami (but shot in L.A.), the city was rarely emphasized and the action took place mostly in the docs' drab offices. No more. Los Angeles itself has become a major character, though she's not always pretty.
"Every season has a villain," Murphy explains. "This season, the villain is L.A. It really is where dreams go to die."
Shoots take place outside the famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Chateau Marmont (which is Murphy's part-time home), Koreatown, the Hollywood Hills and Pink's hot dog stand.
The setting makes guest stars, for which the show has become renowned, more pertinent. And the season will be filled with more famous faces than ever. Among them: Oliver Platt (as a director), Jennifer Coolidge (as an actress), Sharon Gless (as talent agent Colleen Rose), Marlee Matlin (as network head Barbara Shapiro) and Rosie O'Donnell (reprising her lowlife character, Dawn Budge).
Both surgeons will date actresses and attend awards shows, and references will be made to Grey's Anatomy, People magazine's 50 Most Eligible Bachelor's list, Scientology and L.A. hot spot The Ivy.
In the first episode, the guys hire a hot-shot $5,000-a-month publicist played by Lauren Hutton to help land them exposure in the pages of Us and People magazines.
"Image is everything in this town," Troy says.
Bigger and better
The switch in locales seems to have had a pleasing effect on the actors, who have long made L.A. home, Walsh for 17 years and McMahon for 20.
They also had also grown tired of the same old sets. "They were pretty deplorable," McMahon says. "Everything was tiny. Now you walk onto these enormous sets."
Adds Walsh: "And the sets dictate story lines. It was smart to anticipate things getting stale instead of waiting for it to get stale. Now we can actually use this town, and we have more energy. Because the characters are getting a fresh start, we feel like we're doing something different. It is like a different show."
But a lot of it remains the same. Soon after Christian and Sean make the move, they are joined by their anesthesiologist Liz (Roma Maffia) and nurse Linda (Linda Klein).
"One by one, they're just coming out," Walsh says.
"I think it's cool that they're all here," McMahon says. "We need Liz to yell at us all the time."
Joely Richardson is returning as Sean's ex-wife, Julia. She requested and was given early departure last season to care for her ailing teenage daughter, Daisy. This season, Richardson will appear in many of the episodes. "We all came to a very happy compromise," Richardson says, "because I wanted to honor them and yet I needed to honor my personal stuff, as well."
Says Murphy: "She'll always be a part of the series. She's the heart of the show."
But this time, Julia's heart belongs to new acupuncturist girlfriend Olivia, played by Portia de Rossi, the real-life partner of Ellen DeGeneres. Richardson recalls DeGeneres visited the set "and said hello to everyone. She's quite a lady, so everyone was thrilled. She made everyone laugh."
The change in her character's sexuality feels right to Richardson. "I'm not an authority on this, but I think it makes perfect sense because she has been so screwed over by those two men that she's ready for something else. But the problem is, is she really gay or straight?"
From light to dark
Though the new L.A. story lines have a noticeably lighter and more comedic tone (Walsh and McMahon call it "farcical"), the season will get increasingly dark, with one patient coming in with an unusual request resulting from cannibalism. And Episode 3 features the return of Matt, Julia and Sean/Christian's son (it's complicated), and Matt's wife, Kimber. The Scientologist converts arrive with a drug problem and their new baby daughter, Jenna, named after famous Scientology disciple Jenna Elfman.
Lighter touches include the docs' gig as technical advisers on a Nip/Tuck-like show called Hearts 'n Scalpels, which borders on the absurd. Bradley Cooper plays a hot-head actor who stars in the show-within-the-show. The surgeons negotiate speaking parts, and one breaks out as a star. "The great thing about Hearts 'n Scalpels is we can make fun of ourselves," Walsh says.
That's good because, having entered their 40s, the plastic surgeon leading men are smack-dab in the middle of midlife crises.
Walsh's Sean has to wear glasses during surgeries, while McMahon's Christian madly tries to stay fit and fabulous — performing naked push-ups on the patio of his new Malibu beach house, bleaching his teeth, getting facials and manicures, and adding transplants to a receding hairline.
Is any of this art imitating life? Kicking back in McMahon's trailer on the Paramount lot, the men take a pause before addressing the sensitive topic.
"I've gone through things, had ups and downs," says Walsh, 43.
The father of two children with ex-wife Melora Walters (Wanda on HBO's Big Love) and one child with his current wife, actress Joanna Going, Walsh can relate to his character's evolution.
"From the beginning of the series, Sean McNamara had money, the woman he wanted, the job he wanted, and yet something wasn't quite right," he says. "People can relate to that. I can relate to that because I've felt it before."
"Crisis is a pretty horrific place to be at," concurs McMahon, 39, who has had it easy compared with Christian — the survivor of an organ-swiping prostitution ring and a face-slicing psychopathic surgeon named The Carver. "The **** that these guys have dealt with. … If just one of those things happened to me, I'd go into a decline. I've never been (quite) there. But I've been divorced twice (from actresses Dannii Minogue and Brooke Burns, mother of their 7-year-old daughter, Madison). That was pretty critical. But it wasn't a big life crisis, like, 'What am I doing? I'm turning 40!' "
"Let's put it this way," Walsh continues. "It's hard for two guys in the fifth year of a successful show to sit here and talk about a midlife crisis without cracking a joke or two."
And all hope that success continues — at least to the ends of their contracts.
"Don't forget," McMahon reminds, "we're contracted — six years. That's a biggie."
Murphy is committed to just 22 more episodes, taking him to the end of the season. "And then that's it," he says, before adding, "I don't know what I'm going to do. It's fun still, so twisted."
And should things start to get stale in L.A., "we'll just change cities again. We'll go to San Francisco," McMahon says. That gets a laugh out of Walsh, who suggests that perhaps, "Nip/Tuck: Cleveland might work well."
"C'mon, let's go to Atlantic City!" McMahon counters. Walsh comes up with perhaps the cushiest locale: "How about Nip/Tuck: Rio?"
e poi il nuovo titolo della futura sesta serie, Julian e Dylan ci giocano scommettendo sui nomi delle citta' in cui potra' svolgersi, da Cleveland a Rio (Rio non sarebbe male 
)
